in
such terms, that our escape must have seemed little short of a miracle;
and concluded by stating the manner in which we had been driven from our
course, and finally reached the island. The natives listened
attentively, and signified their sense of Rokoa's eloquence by frequent
exclamations of `Maitai! Maitai!' (good! good!) and by nodding their
heads emphatically at the end of every sentence."

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

THE CANNIBAL VILLAGE.

THE MARAE AND THE PRIEST--MOWNO AT HOME--CANNIBAL YOUNG LADIES--OLLA AND
HER FRIENDS.

"And there, with awful rites, the hoary priest,
Beside that moss-grown heathen altar stood,
His dusky form in magic cincture dressed,
And made the offering to his hideous god."

"So then," said Browne, interrupting Arthur's narrative, "these two
parties of savages, instead of going to work, knocking each others'
brains out, as one might naturally have expected, actually commenced
entertaining one another with set speeches, very much like the mayor and
aldermen of a city corporation receiving a deputation of visitors!"

"There is," replied Arthur, "an almost childish fondness of form and
ceremony among all the Polynesian tribes, as is seen at their high
feasts and festivals, their games, and religious rites. The chiefs and
priests are in the habit of making little orations upon a variety of
occasions, when this is expected of them. Formerly there existed in the
Society Islands, a class of persons called Rautis, or orators of battle,
whose exclusive business it was to exhort the people in time of war, and
on the eve of an engagement. Even during the heat of conflict they
mingled with the combatants, and strove to animate and inflame their
courage, by recounting the exploits of their ancestors, and urging every
motive calculated to excite desperate valour and contempt of death.
Some very remarkable instances of the powerful effect produced by the
eloquence of these Rautis are recorded, showing that they constituted a
by no means useless or ineffective part of a native army. The islanders
almost universally have a taste for oratory, by which they are easily
affected; and they hold those who excel in it in high estimation."

"It would appear then," said Browne, "that they are not such utter
heathens after all; I should never have given them credit for so much
taste and sensibility."

"You see, Browne," said Max, "what advantages you will enjoy over the
rest of us, when we